FAFSA didn’t give me the option to declare myself a dependent (likely as I’ll be turning 24 next year). I did say that I would be living with a parent, but didn’t provide any parental information. Was this a mistake, should I go go back and fix it, or wait to hear from my school? Some other information that might be pertinent: I am an undergraduate and next year I will be a senior. I also declared $0 in income for 2015. Is this going to negatively affect how much aid I receive next year?
If you are filing the FAFSA today, you would have to turn 24 at the end of this calendar year or wait and file the fafsa in 2017, when you will be 24 before the end of 2017.
also see if the pros of being independent out weigh the cons
Independent if:
Born before January 1, 1993 for the 2016-2017 FAFSA
Born before January 1, 1994 for the 2017-2018 FAFSA
When you fill out the 2017-2018 FAFSA doesn’t matter. If you turn 24 before January 1, 1994 then you are independent.
If you are automatically independent due to age, the FAFSA formula will not take parent info into consideration. How this affects a student varies. Sometimes EFC will rise because the student’s parent had an automatic 0 EFC or assets were ignored based on parent situation … and this “can” result in a bigger EFC when the student is independent. On the other hand, the student’s EFC could drop way down, and he might be eligible for a Pell Grant when he wasn’t in the past. Depending on the school, the lower EFC may also result in increased institutional grants (but that is not always the case).